Photo of Chitral
Posted on 12/21/2004 3:38:43 AM PST by Snapple
"If I had to guess, I would guess that Osama bin Laden is in a remote region on the Afghan-Pakistan border," Bush told a White House news conference when asked if the hunt for bin Laden had gone cold.
The Pakistani news NNI claims that 90 CIA officers and Grey Fox helicopters are in Chitral, Pakistan.
http://www.nni-news.com/archive/14-12-2004/index.htm
NNI (National News) December 14, 2004
Pakistan rejects operation against Osama in Chitral
ISLAMABAD, : Pakistan on Monday strongly rejected the reports of the operation against Osama bin Ladin by the US forces, in Chitral, the northern area of Pakistan.
Foreign Office Spokesman Masood Khan, while answering the newsmen in his weekly briefing, dispelled the impression of the presence of Osama bin Ladin in the northern areas or any part of Pakistan.
“Osama has neither been sighted in the northern areas nor in other parts of Pakistan”, he said.
Khan said these are just rumors and there is no authentic information about his presence in Pakistan. He said Osama bin Ladin is probably in Afghanistan. However he said operation against the suspected Al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan would continue.
According to reports the US forces has started operation in Chitral to hunt down Osama and his associates. NNI
The reports said that 90 CIA officials and GREY FOX helicopters are taking part in the operation.
Snip from NYT, Monday, December 13, 2004:
Many analysts are convinced that he is being protected by a well-financed network of Pakistani tribesmen and foreign militants who operate in the impoverished border region, and that they have helped him communicate with major figures in his network. "Bin Laden is getting his logistical support from the tribes," said one intelligence official. "He still has operational communications with the outside."
The place suspected of being Mr. bin Laden's hide-out, in the shadow of the Hindu Kush mountain range, is in one of the most isolated and backward corners of the world. Pakistan's frontier is a barren terrain of mountains and mud. The fiercely independent ethnic Pashtun who inhabit the region are farmers and smugglers, most of them poor and illiterate. Local mullahs preach a radical Islamic ideology that portrays the United States as bent on enslaving Muslims and destroying their culture.
Snip from December 13, 2004 NYT:
From a presumed hiding place on the Pakistani side of the Afghan-Pakistan border, [Bin Laden] controls an elite terrorist cell devoted to attacking in the United States, the officials say they suspect. They contend that he personally oversees the group of Qaeda operatives, which he hopes to use for another "spectacular" event, like the Sept. 11 hijacking plot.
"If I had to guess, I would guess that Osama bin Laden is in a remote region on the Afghan-Pakistan border,"
Gee, thats a stretch...
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_16-3-2004_pg7_14
‘Task Force 121 likely to hunt Bin Laden in Pakistan’
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: Task Force 121, a conglomerate of American intelligence agencies and military personnel, will likely infiltrate Pakistan and try to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden if the flushing action pinpoints Bin Laden, who is believed to be moving in the country’s semi-autonomous tribal areas, a The Washington Times report said on Monday.
Task Force 121, the secret man-hunting unit formed for the war on terrorism, is a blend of warriors, aviators, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers and deep-cover intelligence collectors who nabbed Saddam Hussein and now hope to catch Bin Laden.
“This is tightening the sensor-to-shooter loop,” said a senior defence official. “You have your own intelligence right with the guys who do the shooting and grabbing. All the information under one roof.”
The Pentagon refuses to discuss the group’s makeup. Its members avoid reporters. New information was obtained through interviews with knowledgeable defence officials.
Elements of 121 have moved from Iraq to Afghanistan for a US spring offensive, named “Mountain Storm,” against Al Qaeda now reorganising in Pakistan.
Task Force 121’s composition includes four major elements:
Grey Fox: a deep-cover organisation based at Fort Belvoir in Northern Virginia. Members specialise in spying and intercepting communications. They carry hardware that can tap into electronic-eavesdropping satellites and can splice fibre-optic cables. Grey Fox maintains a fleet of aircraft at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. On occasion, members enter countries on “non-official cover” using assumed identities. Created principally to combat international drug smugglers, Grey Fox has turned out to be the perfect unit for Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s demand for “actionable intelligence” to kill or capture Al Qaeda operatives and other terrorists.
The army once maintained Grey Fox, but after September 11 the Pentagon shifted direct control to Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) at Fort Bragg, NC. Ultimately, Grey Fox reports to US Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla.
Although officials still refer to the intelligence unit as Grey Fox, a defence source said its code name was changed during the war on terrorism. The source asked that the new designation not be reported. Grey Fox has operated under a number of different code words. In the early 1990s, for example, it was called “Capacity Gear”.
JSOC: This is the headquarters for an elite 800-member group of Army Delta Force and Navy SEALs who specialise in counter-terrorism. Left mostly on the shelf pre-September 11, JSOC is today the most active it has ever been.
JSOC was the bulk of Task Force in Afghanistan that hunted Bin Laden, Mulla Omar and other high-value targets. It then reinvented itself as Task Force 121 in Iraq. Sources say it’s likely the task force will take on a new designating number now that it is back in Afghanistan.
JSOC and Grey Fox make up the “black” world of special operations. The “white” units — which operate more publicly — include Green Berets and civil-affairs officers. .
CIA Special Activities Division: These are CIA paramilitaries who can aid Task Force 121 by setting up networks of sources in Iraq and Afghanistan, and provide intelligence directly to the warriors.
The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment: This fleet of Black Hawk, Chinook and AH-6 “Little Bird” helicopters ferries the Delta Force and SEALs where they need to go, quickly, at night, at low altitudes. Saddam was loaded onto a “Little Bird” Dec. 13 and taken to Tikrit after Task Force 121 and a 4th Infantry Division unit found him hiding in a hole on a farm.
Task Force 121 would not be the first joint operation between the CIA and armed forces. In the Afghanistan war, the Pentagon transferred scores of special operations troops to the CIA’s Special Activities Division to infiltrate the country and set up links to anti-Taliban forces.
Elements of Task Force 121 are moving to the Afghanistan because of a planned spring offensive, and because the military and CIA are picking up better intelligence on bin Laden. President Musharraf has put thousands of troops into border area with Afghanistan against Al Qaeda. More boots on the ground means more contacts with locals, who provide information.
Meanwhile, the CIA and the US-led coalition task force based at Bagram, north of Kabul, has learned lessons from the hunt for Saddam.
That search showed the value of “link-analysis” — listing the names of every person who has contacts with the target, or contacts with friends or family of the target, and then finding them for questioning. The result is that the US believes it knows areas where Bin Laden has visited and to which he may return, said a defence source.
US military officers in Afghanistan have expressed growing confidence they will catch Bin Laden by year’s end. But Mr Rumsfeld told CNN, “I don’t know if he’ll be caught this year. If he’s alive, I’m sure he’ll be caught eventually. And when, I don’t know.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040315-122940-5507r.htm
Task Force 121, the secret manhunting unit formed for the war on terrorism, is a blend of warriors, aviators, CIA officers and deep-cover intelligence collectors who nabbed Saddam Hussein and now hope to grab Osama bin Laden....
Grey Fox, a deep-cover organization based at Fort Belvoir in Northern Virginia. Members specialize in spying and intercepting communications. They carry hardware that can tap into electronic-eavesdropping satellites and that can splice fiber-optic cables.
Chitral... in the shadow of a 25,230' mountain peak. The area is similar to Nepal or Tibet. Rugged and isolated are both understatements. I saw a calendar with scenic background shots from the region, they were very stunning images, resort like.
Freeping... 10 clicks southeast of Kandahar.
Ahh why does he have to guess shouldn't he be getting better Intelligence than guessing?
They have an Internet newspaper in English.
http://www.chitralnews.com
" The army once maintained Grey Fox, but after September 11 the Pentagon shifted direct control to Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) at Fort Bragg, NC. "
Warms the heart...
Well, whatever they call it and wherever it's stationed at home, the Pakistani NNI claims 90 CIA officials and their Grey Fox helicopters are in Chitral.
Hopefully, they will catch Osama.
See post #2.
The President is being diplomatic. The helicopters and 90 CIA officials may be in Chitral, Pakistan. If so, that sounds like more than guessing.
psst...
My html skills escape me at the moment... can you or someone reading this, put this link
http://www.chitralnews.com/10Rev1.0.jpg
from the Chitral Internet news site in code and stick this image in this thread ? There is an airstrip in the image... thanks be to the www eh ?
Freeping, it's not just for breakfast anymore!
hot damn, the image/link is hot...
I don't know how to post pictures, but you can click on the picture. Maybe someone else can post it.
Chitral does have a small airstrip and daily flights out, weather permitting. Often the weather doesn't permit flying. If you go to Chitral you need to plan to leave for the big city a few days before your flight out of Pakistan.
Before 9-11 they had trekking tours via jeeps into the mountains.
The roads are blocked by snow about half of the year I think, so they are fairly cut off from the outside world.
Chitral, Pakistan is surrounded by Afghanistan on three sides.
Photo of Chitral
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/chitral.htm
By the end of September 2001, American and Pakistani military officials had discussed the possibility of American use of five airfields in Pakistan: Peshawar, Quetta, Dalbandin, Pasni, and Chitral. Ultimately, Chitral was not among the bases selected for use.
The small airstrip at Chitral is in Pakistan's northwest. The single runway is 5800 feet long and 100 feet wide. PIA operates daily flights between Peshawar and Chitral, subject to weather conditions. The flying time is 50 minutes.
Thanks. I have already seen that.
Keep googling Chitral+Bin+laden and you will learn a lot about the area.
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